http://www.w3.org/ -- 10 February 2004 -- Today, the World
Wide Web Consortium announced final approval of two key Semantic Web
technologies, the revised Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web
Ontology Language (OWL). RDF and OWL are Semantic Web standards that provide
a framework for asset management, enterprise integration and the sharing and
reuse of data on the Web. These standard formats for data sharing span
application, enterprise, and community boundaries - all of these different
types of "user" can share the same information, even if they don't share the
same software.

Today's announcement marks the emergence of the Semantic Web as a
broad-based, commercial-grade platform for data on the Web. The deployment of
these standards in commercial products and services signals the transition of
Semantic Web technology from what was largely a research and advanced
development project over the last five years, to more practical technology
deployed in mass market tools that enables more flexible access to structured
data on the Web. Testimonials from
enterprise-scale implementors and independent developers illustrate current
uses of these standards on the Web today.

"RDF and OWL make a strong foundation for Semantic Web applications," said
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web. "Their
approval as W3C Recommendations come at a time when new products spring up in
areas as diverse as Enterprise Integration and medical decision support. It's
not unlike the early days of the Web, when once people saw how it worked,
they understood its power. We're entering that phase now, where people can
see the beginnings of the Semantic Web at work."

A World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation
is understood by industry and the Web community at large as a Web standard.
Each Recommendation is a stable specification developed by a W3C Working
Group and reviewed by the W3C Membership. Recommendations promote
interoperability of Web technologies of the Web by explicitly conveying the
industry consensus formed by the Working Group.

Wide Range of Applications Growing from New Semantic Web Standards

Semantic Web-enabled software using RDF and OWL include:

Content creation applications: Authors can connect metadata (subject,
creator, location, language, copyright status, or any other terms) with
documents, making the new enhanced documents searchable

Tools for Web site management: Large Web sites can be managed
dynamically according to content categories customized for the site
managers

Software that takes advantage of both RDF and OWL: Organizations can
integrate enterprise applications, publishing and subscriptions using
flexible models

How the Semantic Web Pieces Fit Together - XML, RDF and OWL

Much has been written about the Semantic Web, as if it is a replacement
technology for the Web we know today. "In reality," countered Eric Miller,
W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead, "it's more Web Evolution than Revolution. The
Semantic Web is made through incremental changes, by bringing
machine-readable descriptions to the data and documents already on the Web.
XML, RDF and OWL enable the Web to be a global infrastructure for sharing
both documents and data, which make searching and reusing information easier
and more reliable as well. "

W3C's Semantic Web Activity builds on work done in other W3C Activities,
such as the XML Activity. Its focus is to develop standard technologies, on
top of XML, that support the growth of the Semantic Web.

XML Provides Rules, Syntax for Structured Documents

At the foundation, XML provides a set of rules for creating vocabularies
that can bring structure to both documents and data on the Web. XML gives
clear rules for syntax; XML Schemas then serve as a method for composing XML
vocabularies. XML is a powerful, flexible surface syntax for structured
documents, but imposes no semantic constraints on the meaning of these
documents.

RDF Delivers a Data Framework for the Web

RDF - the Resource Description Framework - is a standard a way for simple
descriptions to be made. What XML is for syntax, RDF is for semantics - a
clear set of rules for providing simple descriptive information. RDF Schema
then provides a way for those descriptions to be combined into a single
vocabulary. RDF is integrated into a variety of applications including:

library catalogs

world-wide directories

syndication and aggregation of news, software, and content

personal collections of music, photos, and events

In these cases, each uses XML as an interchange syntax. The RDF
specifications provide a powerful framework for supporting the exchange of
knowledge on the Web.

"RDF is part of the foundation of a major advance in the power of the Web.
Ultimately, we will see users and applications combining information
represented in RDF from multiple sources on the Web in ways that, until now,
have been inconceivable," explains Brian McBride, Chair of the RDF Core
Working Group, "The RDFCore Working Group has turned the RDF specifications
into both a practical and mathematically precise foundation on which OWL and
the rest of the Semantic Web can be built."

OWL Delivers Ontologies that Work on the Web

What's needed next is a way to develop subject - or domain - specific
vocabularies. That is the role of an ontology. An ontology defines the terms
used to describe and represent an area of knowledge. Ontologies are used by
people, databases, and applications that need to share subject-specific
(domain) information - like medicine, tool manufacturing, real estate,
automobile repair, financial management, etc. Ontologies include
computer-usable definitions of basic concepts in the domain and the
relationships among them. They encode knowledge in a domain and also
knowledge that spans domains. In this way, they make that knowledge
reusable.

OWL - the Web Ontology Language - provides a language for defining
structured, Web-based ontologies which delivers richer integration and
interoperability of data among descriptive communities. Where earlier
languages have been used to develop tools and ontologies for specific user
communities (particularly in the sciences and in company-specific e-commerce
applications), they were not defined to be compatible with the architecture
of the World Wide Web in general, and the Semantic Web in particular.

OWL uses both URIs for naming and the description framework for the Web
provided by RDF to add the following capabilities to ontologies:

Ability to be distributed across many systems

Scalability to Web needs

Compatibility with Web standards for accessibility and
internationalization

"OWL takes a major step forward in representing and organizing knowledge
on the World Wide Web. It strikes a sound balance between the needs of
industry participants for a language which addresses their current Web use
cases, and the restrictions on developing an ontology language that meshed
with established scientific principles and research experience," explained
Jim Hendler and Guus Schreiber, co-chairs for the Web Ontology Working Group.
"Over fifty Working Group members have successfully designed a language that
addresses both sets of concerns and is endorsed by academics and
practitioners alike."

RDF and OWL Documents Include Primers, Use Cases, Test Suites, to Aid
Developers

The W3C RDF Core Group has produced six documents. Each is aimed at
different segments of those wishing to learn, use, implement or understand
RDF. The RDF Primer is an
introduction to, and tutorial on how to use, RDF and RDF Schema. RDF Concepts and Abstract
Syntax specifies the fundamental concepts and information model of RDF.
The RDF/XML Syntax
Specification (Revised) defines how to write RDF in XML syntax. RDF Vocabulary Description Language
1.0: RDF Schema describes how to use RDF to describe application and
domain specific vocabularies. RDF
Semantics defines the mathematically precise formal semantics of RDF and
RDF Schema. RDF Test Cases
defines a set of test cases that illustrate aspects of the other
specifications and may be used for the automatic testing of
implementations.

The W3C Web Ontology Working Group has produced six OWL documents. Each is
aimed at different segments of those wishing to learn, use, implement or
understand the OWL language. Documents include - a presentation of the use cases and
requirements that motivated OWL - an overview
document which briefly explains the features of OWL and how they can be used
- a comprehensive Guide that walks
through the features of OWL with many examples of the use of OWL features - a
reference
document that provides the details of every OWL feature - a test case
document, and test suite,
providing over a hundred tests that can be used for making sure that OWL
implementations are consistent with the language design - a document
presenting the semantics of
OWL and details of the mapping from OWL to RDF.

Industrial and Academic Leaders Move Semantic Web Standards Forward

The RDF Core Working Group is comprised of industrial and academic
expertise, lending the depth of research and product implementation
experience necessary for building a common description framework for the Web.
Participants include representatives from Hewlett Packard, Nokia, IBM, AGFA,
ILRT Institute for Learning and Research Technology at the University of
Bristol, IWA International Webmasters Association and the University of West
Florida. The RDF Core Working Group builds on the contributions of many other
organization which developed the RDF Model and
Syntax (1999 Recommendation) and RDF Schema (1999
Proposed Recommendation).

The W3C Web Ontology Working Group carries a complement of industrial and
academic expertise, lending the depth of research and product implementation
experience necessary for building a robust ontology language system.
Participants include representatives from Agfa-Gevaert N. V; Daimler Chrysler
Research and Technology; DARPA; Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA);
EDS; Fujitsu; Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI); Hewlett Packard Company;
Ibrow; IBM; INRIA; Ivis Group; Lucent; University of Maryland; Mondeca;
Motorola; National Institute of of Standards and Technology (NIST); Network
Inference, Nokia; Philips, University of Southampton; Stanford University;
Sun Microsystems; Unicorn Solutions along with invited experts from German
Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) Gmbh; the Interoperability
Technology Association for Information Processing, Japan (INTAP); and the
University of West Florida.

OWL brings together a number of groups that have been developing Web
ontology languages over the past decade. OWL is based the DAML+OIL
language, which was developed by an international team funded by the US
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the European
Commission's Information Science Technologies (IST) program. The documents
released today represent the maturation of this work shaped by the members of
the the World Wide Web Consortium.